MILLER THEATRE AND COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF THE ARTS present a marathon concert in honor of the 2009 William Schuman Award Winner Pauline Oliveros on Saturday, March 27, 8:00PM.
An all-star lineup plays a multifaceted program showcasing Oliveros' stylistic evolution
From Carol Becker, Dean, Columbia University School of the Arts:
"Pauline Oliveros is an eternal innovator whose work has deeply influenced the evolution of many strains of contemporary classical music, from electronic to improvisation. I am particularly thrilled to be able to acknowledge her contributions to the field with the Schuman Award and to note that she is its first female recipient."
2009 William Schuman Award Concert Honoring
PAULINE OLIVEROS
Saturday, March 27, 8:00PM
Carol Becker, dean of the Columbia University School of the Arts, presents Pauline Oliveros with the William Schuman Award. The Schuman Award honors the lifetime achievement and lasting significance of a contemporary American composer, and carries a prize of $50,000. Its previous winners include John Zorn, Steve Reich, and Milton Babbitt; Oliveros is the first woman to receive the Schuman Award.
This marathon concert, produced in close partnership with Oliveros, pays tribute to her pioneering work in electronic experimental music and celebrates her varied influences. An exciting line-up of performers plays a program exploring the evolution of Oliveros' music-from early notated pieces for chamber ensemble to collaborative works created with dancers and visual artists. The musical performances will be interspersed with spoken tributes from friends and colleagues of the composer. visual composer Tony Martin.
PROGRAM:
Deep Listening: Lear (1988) (CD recording)
Fed Back II (1966) (audio playback)
Sounds from Childhood: Sonic Meditation (1992) (for audience participation)
The Gender of Now: There but not There (2005)
Variations for Sextet (1960)
Who's Playing What (2010)
Bye Bye Butterfly (1965) (audio playback)
The Inner / Outer Matrix (2007)
IO and Her and the Trouble with Him: A dance opera in primeval time (2001) (video excerpt)
Oracle Bones: Mirror Dreams (2009)
Lunar Opera: Deep Listening For_Tunes (2000) (video excerpt)
Ghostdance (1995) (video excerpt)
Njinga the Queen King: Return of a Warrior (1993) (video excerpts)
DroniPhonia (2009)
ARTISTS:
International Contemporary Ensemble
Deep Listening Band
Timeless Pulse
Tom Buckner, baritone; Monique Buzzarté, trombone; Jonas Braasch, soprano saxophone; Sarah Cahill, piano; Stuart Dempster, trombone and didjeridu; Margot Farrington, visual performer; David Gampner, piano and electronics; Heloise Gold, dancer; Ione, spoken word/sonic vocals; Tony Martin, visual composer and performer; George Marsh, percussion; Miya Masaoka, koto/electronics; Doug Van Nort, laptop; Jennifer Wilsey, percussion; and David Wessel, electronics
SPEAKERS:
Carol Becker, Dean, Columbia School of the Arts
David Bernstein
Michael Century
David Felton
Linda Mary Montano
Renée Levine Packer
Frances Richard
Jenneth Webster
PAULINE OLIVEROS is an important pioneer in American music. Acclaimed internationally, she has explored sound for four decades-forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching, and meditation she has created a body of work with such breadth of vision that it profoundly affects those who experience it and eludes many who try to write about it. As John Rockwell put it, "On some level, music, sound consciousness, and religion are all one, and she would seem to be very close to that level." Oliveros has been honored with awards, grants, and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged.
Through Deep Listening pieces and earlier Sonic Meditations Oliveros introduced the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires focused concentration, skilled musicianship, and strong improvisational skills, which are the hallmarks of Oliveros' form. In performance Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation in addition to electronics to alter the sound of the accordion and to explore the individual characteristics of each room.
Pauline Oliveros has built a loyal following through her concerts, recordings, publications, and musical compositions. She has also provided leadership within the music community from her early years as the first director of the Center for Contemporary Music (formerly the Tape Music Center at Mills), as director of the Center for Music Experiment (during her 14-year tenure as professor of music at the University of California at San Diego), and as an advocate for organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts, and many private foundations. She now serves as Distinguished Research Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Darius Milhaud Composer in Residence at Mills College. Oliveros has been vocal about representing the needs of individual artists, about the need for diversity and experimentation in the arts, and in promoting cooperation and good will among people.
